Foothill Officers Dispute Findings : Reaction: They consistently deny witnessing brutality and racism, as though it is another police department being described.

To hear Foothill Division officers Tuesday, it was as though the Christopher Commission had written about another police department.

At their desks and in patrol cars, at soda machines and in the quiet of an empty roll call room, officers at the epicenter of the Rodney G. King controversy consistently denied witnessing the brutality and racism described in the commission’s 228-page report.

“I’ve been on this job 22 years and apparently I’ve been blinded to what they said because I haven’t seen the gross misconduct that they’re claiming,” said Officer Dennis Osmanson as he returned from a day recovering stolen autos.

“It hasn’t happened to me,” Brian Brown, a young black officer, said of alleged racism within the department.

Officers were angry, defiant, and at times seemed simply worn out by public scrutiny in the Foothill Division police station, the cramped, 400-officer Pacoima headquarters of the patrol area where King stopped his car March 3 during a police chase. It was here in the arid, barrio-dotted landscape of the northeast San Fernando Valley where the black parolee’s violent arrest was captured on videotape.

On Tuesday, Foothill officers watched stone-faced as the Christopher Commission’s findings were broadcast on TV. As they watched, still more TV cameras were poised to record the slightest reactions. It was a scene eerily reminiscent of early March, when many of these same officers were required to watch--as the nation also watched--the videotape of King being beaten.

But if Foothill officers were caught off guard by the camera on March 3, on Tuesday they were prepared. A racially mixed group of officers, including a Latino and an African-American, fielded inquiries at the front desk. Reporters were escorted through the station by an efficient public relations officer.

Many officers said they were skeptical of the institutional bigotry described by the Christopher Commission.

Sgt. Gene Fretheim said he had conducted two audits in the last six months of computer messages sent by Foothill officers on terminals in their patrol cars and found it hard to reconcile his findings with those of the commission. “I read every one of those messages and couldn’t find anything that could be perceived to be racist, sexist or not work-related,” he said.

Lt. Thomas Maeweather, an African-American detective transferred to the Foothill Division after the King incident, said, “I don’t believe for one minute that Gates supports racism.”

Maeweather acknowledged he had been offended by some of Gates’ remarks over the years, including one that implied some blacks were more sensitive to chokeholds than “normal” people.

“Being black, I wasn’t happy when that comment came out, but I see Gates also implemented affirmative action programs,” Maeweather said. “He’s been connected too much with what he’s said rather than what he did.”

Officer Alan Kreitzman, recalling that he joined the department three years ago because of its reputation as one of the country’s finest, said the only prejudice he has seen is against criminals. If officers get tough, Kreitzman and other officers said Tuesday, it’s because sometimes that’s the only language some people understand.

“I don’t think the average citizen realizes what we deal with, and the pressures that we deal with,” Kreitzman said.

Kreitzman, who grew up in Canoga Park, said his eyes were opened when he completed his probation in the Northeast Division in the inner city. “It’s a different world down there. Things are done totally different. The way people act, the way people treat people. It’s a totally different world.”

One veteran detective, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, put it more bluntly.

“Uniformed coppers got so much garbage they got to put up with,” he said. “People want something done about gangs, about drugs, about violence. But when you start knocking heads, they say, ‘Oh, wait a minute, you can’t do that!’ ”

“It’s easy to watch on TV, but I don’t see the critics, the Melanie Lomaxes and what have yous, volunteering to put on a uniform and go out on the street.”